Grandpa delivers daughter's baby

Monday

Nov 5, 2012 at 6:00 AM

By Kim Ring TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

While Eric Flowers was trick-or-treating with his son and his stepdaughter Halloween night, he figured they'd collected plenty of treats, but when he got home there was another treat he hadn't expected at all.

“I walked in the door and the baby was coming out,” Mr. Flowers said.

He'd taken a telephone call from his father-in-law, Daniel Flowers, telling him the baby was coming even though she wasn't supposed to arrive until Dec. 1. He raced home and called 911, but it was obvious the baby was going to be delivered on the couch.

The elder Mr. Flowers (his son-in-law took their family's name when he married Chrissy Flowers) said he felt he had things under control and while the situation could have been embarrassing for him and his daughter, he was totally focused on the baby.

He cleaned her face and airway and made sure she was breathing, relaxing when she let out a cry.

“I was in the Navy for eight years, I've seen half the world, I've done everything a man could want to do ... except this,” he said. “I've been gloating about this,” said the former Monson volunteer firefighter.

When his wife was pregnant with Chrissy, Daniel tried to talk her into a home delivery but she declined. Now, years later, his dream came true when he delivered his granddaughter.

Eric, a former West Brookfield firefighter who served four years in the Army, grabbed some towels and used bread ties and a rubber band to tie off the umbilical cord, then he cut the baby free.

“It was like MacGyver,” he laughed, adding that he'd assisted in a delivery once before in an ambulance in West Brookfield.

Just before the cord was cut, Officer Matthew McGoldrick walked through the door.

“The baby was just popping out,” he said. “We just missed it.”

The 23-year-old police officer, who lives in Paxton, was surprised that something he'd heard was a rare occurrence in a policeman's career was happening to him less than a month after he was hired.

“That was quite the experience,” he said. “It was such a positive thing to hear the baby cry.”

There wasn't much left for Officer McGoldrick and the other arriving officers to do. They delivered the placenta, observed the cord-cutting and made sure the baby's vital signs were OK before getting everyone safely in an ambulance and off to Harrington Hospital in Southbridge, where the baby will stay for about two weeks.

Chrissy Flowers said she's not totally stunned by the speedy delivery. Her daughter Mariah, 5, was delivered at the hospital shortly after she arrived and their son, Danny, 2, was almost born in the parking lot.

“I prayed this whole pregnancy that I'd be able to get an epidural for this one,” she said. “Next time I'm not even going to plan on going to the hospital.”